Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design (CARRD) encourages civic engagement, provides in-depth analysis and works to improve the transparency and accountability of the California High-Speed Rail Project. We are a grassroots, volunteer organization who does not accept any donations (other than documents!).

Stay Informed

We try our best to update information regularly – usually in the form of articles. Interested in receiving updates automatically?Please be sure to subscribe to our mailing liston the right side of this page. You can also follow us on Twitter: @calhsr or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calhsr/

CARRD Public Library Collection:

Looking for documents?CARRD maintains an extensive collection of documents related to the California High Speed Rail project along with other topics of interest on our public Google Drive.

Many of the documents come from the public records requests we have made over the years. If you have documents you’d like to share with us for our collection, please feel free to contact us at info@calhsr.com.

Writing a story on HSR and need help finding documents in our library? Please contact us at media@calhsr.com along with any deadlines and we’ll do our best to help you find what you need.

Latest News

3/8/2016 Judge issues ruling in challenge to the current plan for construction of the California high speed rail system. Here is the opinion issued by Judge Kenny, denying the challenge.

2/18/2016 The Authority released its much anticipated 2016 DRAFT business plan. We hope to have a summary of our reactions soon. For now, see our first impressions by looking at our Twitter remarks at: https://twitter.com/calhsr or you can also visit our Facebook page which has been updated with media reactions to the plan. Don’t forget to follow us and like us!

2/11/2016 The High Speed Rail Authority was back in court for Part 2 of their legal battle which is currently tying up the ability to access the $9 billion dollars voters approved in 2008. If you’d like to see what happened in court, there is a YouTube channel that has video of the proceedings. For those of you who like to dive into the details, the legal briefs for the case are available on the TransDef website: http://transdef.org/HSR/TaxpayerII.html.

1/24/2016 In June 2015, Parsons’s Brinckerhoff partnered with UK’s embattled Network rail and won a seven year, $700 million contract to continuing managing the high speed rail project. Why has the winning proposal remained unpublished until now and is this actually a good thing for California? Read all about it here.

1/21/2016 Here is the infamous report produced by Parsons Brinckerhoff for the 2014 Business Plan costs. The Authority paid for it and then dismissed it.

11/16/2015 Here is a one-pager that summarizes our fruitless quest over a three month period to get ANY back up documentation for the capital costs in the 2014 Business Plan.

11/9/2015 Worried about transparency? CARRD is too! Our latest report calls on Legislators to help beef up reporting requirements. Read internal emails showing how under the CEO’s guidance and without board approval, reporting guidelines for consultants were changed to purposely hide information.

12/12/2013 Even more on travel time calculations for the blended system. Did the Authority ask their consultants to slant a critical report?

11/24/2013 We have posted additional progress reports from the Authority’s consultants, including reports from the since dismissed program manager oversight consultant (TY Lin) and a new series of reports from the construction manager oversight consultant. Since the Authority stopped holding public operations committee meetings 18 months ago, these are virtually the only way to get updates on what is going on. Hint, hint: a westside bypass of Bakersfield is at least being looked at and service plans for the first construction segment are being developed at the FRA’s request. Shouldn’t these service plans get some public feedback?

Please note: we have posted most recent and will eventually add older reports. If you need something, please email info@calhsr.com.

10/18/2013 Guess what arrived in the mail? The questions and answers submitted by the bidders on the first construction contract RFP! There are a lot – some about typos and some about substantive issues like risk sharing, insurance and curves that were drawn too tight.

8/16/2013 Judge rules against CHSRA: they must rescind funding plan that is requirement before spending bond $ CARRD urged the board not to approve an obviously flawed plan in November 2o11 See video clip

10/25/2011 EIR Comment Letters from various stakeholders in response to the High Speed Rail Authority’s environmental reviews.

10/20/2011 Reports to the Legislature by the California High Speed Rail Authority on funding alternatives, blended service from San Francisco to San Jose, Grapevine communications plan, along with CARRD’s analysis.

7/28/11 CARRD is happy to report that we have finally received a copy of the first report from the Ridership Peer Review Committee which is available here. For more information, please visit our Ridership page. We have been promised via email a CD by the end of the week with the communications between the Authority and the Ridership Peer Review Committee.

1/20/2011 CHSRA’s Technical Memos which CARRD is in an ongoing process of obtaining through a series of Public Records Requests. These are guidelines which ensure that early designs for each section are consistent and compatible.